


Lexicon - High School

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1469]
Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:02:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21653431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: Gibbs has a crush on jock Tony. There's only one problem. He gets tongue tied every time he tries to talk to the popular jock, Tony, at his high school.
Relationships: Anthony DiNozzo/Jethro Gibbs, Ellie Bishop/Timothy McGee, Tobias Fornell/Jimmy Palmer
Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1469]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/444514
Comments: 20
Kudos: 45
Collections: Prompts for Cutsycat - NCIS (2018)





	Lexicon - High School

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Appletini](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Appletini/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [Appletini](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Appletini/pseuds/Appletini) in the [cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2018](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2018) collection. 



> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 05/09/2003 for the word [lexicon](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2003/05/09/lexicon).
> 
> lexicon[ lek-si-kon, -kuhn ]  
> noun, plural lex·i·ca [lek-si-kuh] , lex·i·cons.  
> a wordbook or dictionary, especially of Greek, Latin, or Hebrew.  
> the vocabulary of a particular language, field, social class, person, etc.  
> inventory or record:  
> unparalleled in the lexicon of human relations.  
> Linguistics.  
> the total inventory of morphemes in a given language.  
> the inventory of base morphemes plus their combinations with derivational morphemes.
> 
> This was requested by Appletini as part of my 2018 prompt challenge [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2018/profile). The 2018 Prompts are closed, however, you can still sign up for the 2019 Prompts [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2019/profile). More instructions are below if you wish to sign up. 
> 
> **Prompt:**
> 
> 1950s Stillwater High. Tony is a popular but affable jock with many people vying for his heart. Gibbs(Jet) is a semi-misanthropic bad boy who always turns into a quivering mess around Tony. McGee and Abby are mathletes in love until the new girl, Delilah, threatens to upset their apple cart. Gibbs wants to ask Tony to the prom. His best friend Mike Franks tries to help with questionable advice. Who will Tim ask? Delilah, Abby or someone else? Will the shy but sweet Tobias find love?
> 
> Soapy relationship drama. Bisexual universe.  
>  **End Prompt**

Gibbs glared as Tony was surrounded once again by a mass of people. The guy was always surrounded by his would be lovers. He was a popular jock and seemed to have missed the normal highschool social anxiety. 

Gibbs wanted to hate Tony like he did everyone else, but he couldn’t. Tony was genuinely a nice guy. Unlike the other jocks, he didn’t tease the mathletes. In fact, he seemed to be friends with Abby and Tim.

Gibbs didn’t really have any friends. Most people were put off by the keep away vibes that he put out. Gibbs liked it that way. He liked to be left alone.

He wouldn’t mind getting more attention from Tony, but he turned into an idiot whenever Tony was around. He was pretty sure he hadn’t made a good impression on Tony, so the chances of Tony hanging out with him were slim. Still prom was coming up and Gibbs wanted to ask Tony to prom, but he knew Tony would get asked by a million girls. Did he stand a chance?

Franks, one of the few people that hung out with Gibbs, tried to help bolster Gibbs' confidence by pointing out that the grumpy vibe he gave off made him more popular than he wanted and that anyone would be happy to be asked to the prom by him. Franks was also a grumpy bastard who hated the world, so they understood each other. Franks seemed to do better with the ladies than Gibbs, however.

He was going steady with one of the foreign exchange students. Gibbs could never remember her name despite being introduced multiple times. He mostly didn’t care enough about Franks and his relationship as he had his own relationship, or lack thereof, drama to deal with.

Gibbs watched everyone. He tried to learn how to get close to Tony and how to impress him by watching. He’d noticed that the mathletes Abby and Tim seemed to share the same lexicon and he suspected that they were dating or at least hooking up. 

Things were rockier this year than in previous years for them, though. Gibbs wasn’t sure what exactly had happened between them, but the new transfer Delilah seemed to have driven a bit of a wedge between the two. Franks insisted that both Delilah and Abby wanted Tim.

Gibbs really didn’t understand that. Tim was very timid and would drive Gibbs bonkers if he was expected to spend any significant amount of time in the man’s presence. Yet, both girls tried to sit next to him and there was a lot of glaring between the girls and sometimes targeted at Tim too.

He’d overheard from some of the other geeks that Tim didn’t know who to take to prom as he liked both girls and Gibbs had shaken his head. He really didn’t understand how someone could be interested in more than one person. He personally thought that the attention was just going to Tim’s head. 

Still he had better things to do than worry about the mathlete love. He still needed to figure out how to ask Tony out when he could barely form words whenever the man was around. Franks was unhelpful as he just told Gibbs to man up and do so.

Gibbs stared grumpily off into space as he debated how to woo the jock. He was ok at sports, but nowhere near the level of the jocks. Honestly, he was much better with a gun, but that wasn’t considered a sport, especially not to the jocks.

Franks other advice was even more questionable as he’d recommended showering the jock in gifts. Gibbs didn’t want to be like the guy’s fangirls. Tony barely gave them the time of day, so doing what they did was useless.

Franks insisted that doing a secret admirer thing wouldn’t be the same, but Gibbs couldn’t shake the feeling that it wouldn’t be enough to gain Tony’s attention. Gibbs felt a bit like a stalker, but he needed to know more about Tony. He needed to know what the guy actually liked. 

It was plain that whatever the girls were giving him weren’t things he really liked and that while Tony was generally nice to everyone, he was looking for something more than those girls were giving him. Gibbs was determined to give him that something more. He blinked when he spotted Tobias with Tony. 

Was that a kiss between the two of them? Gibbs couldn’t help feeling the rage curling up inside of him. Tony was his. He just didn’t know it yet.

Tobias seemed nice enough, but Gibbs had been positive that he was actually interested in Jimmy, so Gibbs didn’t understand why he was kissing Tony. He’d known that Tony was friends with Tobias, but he never realized they were dating. He waited until Tony had left before cornering Tobias.

“What were you thinking?”

“What?”

“You kissed Tony,” Gibbs snarled.

Tobias held up his hands in surrender. “It’s not what you think, really.”

“Explain.”

“Tony was just helping me practice to gain confidence. He’s not into me that way. I’m not his type.”

“What is his type?”

Tobias shrugged, “The strong silent type?”

“Are you messing with me? I’ll make you regret it if you are.”

“No, I swear. He does. I don’t understand it myself. I prefer the nerdy myself, but neither Jimmy nor I have ever kissed before and one of us should be experienced when I kiss him at prom.”

“Go!” Gibbs ordered.

Tobias nodded and vanished. Gibbs stared at the space previously occupied by the boy and contemplated the new information that he’d gotten. Maybe he stood a better chance with Tony than he’d thought.

That still didn’t answer the question of how he could ask Tony to prom and get him to say yes when he turned into a quivering mess around him. Anyone else and he was fine, he’d happily order them around and demand answers, but not Tony. He couldn’t be near Tony without losing his fucking mind. He hated it and loved it at the same time.

He wandered back to class lost in thought only to be brought to a halt as he rounded a corner and walked smack dab into the middle of an argument. 

“Are you really taking Delilah to the prom?”

“Uh… I don’t know..” Tim mumbled.

“We’ve been dating for three years and you’re not taking me?”

“I don’t know, Abby. I haven’t thought about who I’m taking.”

“Well you better figure it out, Tim. You can’t take both of us.”

McGee frowned as Abby stormed off. He looked around and quickly pressed himself against the wall as he spotted Gibbs. “What do you want?”

Gibbs shook his head and ignored Tim as he headed for his next class. So much drama. The guy really needed to grow some balls and man up. 

He still had no idea how to ask Tony to the prom. He’d seen girls make absolute fools of themselves singing their invite or giving Tony flowers and chocolates and Tony turned them all down. Tony hadn’t said yes to anyone, which meant he still had a chance, but also meant that there was more pressure on Gibbs to do it well. 

It didn’t help that Zoe had been hanging around Tony again. He knew they’d had a relationship previously. He was positive that she was angling for an invite to the prom from Tony. 

His poetry sucked and there was no way Tony would be impressed with it. What could he do that would impress Tony enough to take him to the prom? Gibbs pulled at his hair in frustration.

“You know you look better when you smile.” Tony flashed his famous grin at Gibbs as he sat down in his seat a couple of desks away from Gibbs.

Gibbs felt the blush starting and he glared at Tony. Tony just smiled back in return. Gibbs opened his mouth to say something in return, but no words came out. Why was he always tongue tied around this man?

Prom was coming up in a week. He didn’t have much time to implement a plan to ask Tony out. Gibbs could admit, at least to himself, that he was freaking out inside.

Franks was getting tired of the stupid that was coming out of his mouth. Gibbs was surprised that Franks hadn’t dragged him up to Tony and asked Tony out for him already. He honestly expected Franks to get annoyed enough with his mooning after the guy to do that soon.

Tony’s comment that he looked better when he smiled stuck in Gibbs’ mind. Maybe there was something he could do with that. When he got home that night, Gibbs started sorting through his old school pictures. 

Well, first, he had to find them. He knew his mom had kept them all and dad had followed her lead once she died. He finally found the box that he was looking for and pawed through the pictures looking for one where he was actually smiling.

So many of them he was glaring in. He had to go back quite a few years to find a picture where he was actually smiling. Gibbs thought the photo he’d found was actually from first grade, but it would have to do. 

He quickly scribbled on the back, “If I promise to smile, will you go to prom with me?” He didn’t bother to sign his name since it was his picture. Tomorrow he would slip it into Tony’s locker and hope that Tony’s answer was yes. 

Of course, when he arrived at school the next day, he found himself in the middle of an argument between Tim and Delilah. Tim seemed to be trying to let her down gently and explaining that he’d known Abby longer and had to go to prom with her. 

“I thought you were taking me to prom,” Delilah’s eyes filled with tears.

“Don’t cry, Delilah. Don’t cry. I’d take both of you if I could.”

“Take us both then.”

“I can’t. Abby would kill me.”

Delilah’s eyes teared up and huge wracking sobs escaped her. 

“Ok. Ok. I’ll take you both,” Tim stuttered, “Just please stop crying.” 

Gibbs shook his head. Seriously, the guy needed to man up. At least the drama was providing a distraction, so that he could slip the picture into Tony’s locker without anyone noticing what he’d done.

He waited impatiently for an answer all day, but he never even saw Tony except in class. He couldn’t help feeling let down. He’d been sure Tony would accept.

Apparently, he’d be stuck playing the third wheel to Franks and his date or not going to prom. Franks tried to cheer him up and tell him that they still had a couple of days to prom and he could try again, but Gibbs just couldn’t imagine doing anything more. He was even grumpier than normal the next day, since he was convinced that Tony had turned him down.

He wasn’t much of a book person, so he rarely used his locker. It wasn’t until the day before prom that he opened his locker and realized that Tony had left a note for him. He’d said yes. Gibbs wanted to dance in the middle of the hallway, but wouldn’t let himself. It would ruin his reputation.

He couldn’t help smiling at Tony in the next class. Franks shot him a weird look, but Gibbs ignored him. He was over the moon that Tony had said yes. 

He slipped a note to Tony that said pick you up at 6. Tony’s nod was more than enough answer for Gibbs. He couldn’t believe that he was going to prom with the most popular jock in school.

Prom was tomorrow and he had so much to prepare to make this amazing for Tony, so when he stumbled across the mathletes in the hallway he wasn’t prepared to deal with their drama again. Abby was crying, “How could you take her to the prom? I told you, you couldn’t take us both.”

“Abby, don’t cry. I’m taking you to the prom.”

“But you’re taking her too.”

“What was I supposed to do, Abs? She started crying.”

Gibbs growled, “Man up and make the decision for who you’re taking to prom for yourself. Stop letting them manipulate you.”

Gibbs shoved past Tim and Abby and headed home for the day. He planned to take Tony out to dinner before the prom started and he needed to make reservations. Fortunately, he’d heard Tony loved Italian and knew the perfect restaurant to take him to. Even better, they liked Gibbs enough that getting reservations this late wasn’t an issue.

School was a blur on the day of the prom. Gibbs honestly didn’t remember much of anything that happened that day. He couldn’t wait for it to be over, so that he could go home and put on his tuxedo and pick Tony up for dinner.

He knocked on the door to Tony’s apartment. Somehow the guy lived alone. Gibbs didn’t know how he’d managed that, but it was kind of awesome too. 

Gibbs shifted from one foot to another as he waited for Tony to answer the door. When Tony finally opened the door, Gibbs mouth dropped open. Tony smiled at him and gently closed his mouth.

“You look amazing,” Gibbs mumbled.

“Thanks. You look good enough to eat.”

Gibbs couldn’t help the blush that spread across his face and he gestured towards his car. 

Tony ran his hand gently over the paint job. “This is a nice car.”

“Thanks. My dad helped me rebuild it.”

Gibbs opened the door and Tony stepped into the passenger side. Gibbs drove over to the restaurant, speeding a little bit to impress Tony. They didn’t talk much in the car. Well Gibbs didn’t talk much, Tony seemed happy to babble about the car and whatever else came to his mind.

At dinner, Gibbs focused on smiling. It wasn’t his natural expression, but he didn’t want Tony to think that he wasn’t enjoying himself. Tony again carried most of the conversation, which suited Gibbs just fine. 

“How’d you know this was my favorite restaurant?”

“It was a lucky guess. I happen to like the restaurant too and I’d heard you liked Italian.”

“Well you did good.” Tony grinned at Gibbs.

They finished their food and headed off to the dance. They were one of the first couples there and were already out on the dance floor when most of the rest started arriving. Gibbs was surprised at how easy it was to lead Tony around the dance floor. He’d never considered himself much of a dancer, but with Tony it was easy.

“I’m glad to see that Tobias and Jimmy are enjoying themselves.”

“I heard you helped Tobias get his confidence.”

Tony shrugged, “It wasn’t a big deal.”

Gibbs looked out across the dance floor and blinked in surprise, “Now that one I didn’t expect.” 

Tony glanced in the direction Gibbs was looking and spotted Tim dancing with Bishop. “Oh yeah, after you told McGee to grow a pair he asked Bishop out. Apparently, he’d wanted to date her for a long time, but couldn’t figure out how to break it off with Abby.”

Gibbs shook his head. “I’m glad our relationship doesn’t have as much drama as his.”

“I’m just glad you finally manned up and asked me. I was beginning to think I was wrong about your feelings for me.”

“You were waiting for me?” Gibbs asked, shocked.

“Yeah. I thought you knew I was into you.”

“No. I had no idea. It would have been so much easier for me to ask you out if I’d known that.”

“But then I wouldn’t have gotten a cute picture of you as a kid.”

Gibbs rolled his eyes. “I don’t look that cute.”

“I don’t think you realize how handsome you actually are,” Tony whispered in Gibbs’ ear as he nibbled on his ear lobe.

Gibbs blushed and Tony smirked, “You’re even cuter when you blush.”

Gibbs growled and pulled Tony into a kiss to get him to stop talking and thus stop teasing him. There were catcalls all around as the kiss deepened in the middle of the dance floor. Gibbs was still blushing when he pulled back, but he also had a huge smile on his face. He knew he’d remember this night for the rest of his life.

**Author's Note:**

> The dictionary.com series has no stories already written for it after this one, so I will be posting at least no more stories before I stop posting again. I'm hoping to get more stories written before then, so that I don't stop posting for a while. Wish me luck! 
> 
> 2019 is almost over now! If you haven't used up your 50 prompts you only have one more month to do so. Go [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2019/profile) to add your prompts to my 2019 Prompt Collection. Just click the sign up link. ;) It will remain open until the beginning of 2020. I'm hoping to complete all the 2019 prompts by the end of 2020. 
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes. Please note if you have already voted in the poll and would like to request more stories you can just add a comment to the poll. Please include the name along with the prompt, so that I can appropriately gift the prompt to you.
> 
> For any authors that want to chat and/or are looking for a place where they can toss plot ideas around and get input from people, you can come join my discord server that is specifically geared towards writing/encouraging people to write and authors. The invite link is [here](https://discord.gg/HFvwpCq). If you're not an author, but want to chat with me about writing/stories or anything else you are welcome to join. I reserve the right to boot you from my server if all you do is pester me about updates, however. *grin* Really anyone who wants to talk about writing and/or plot ideas for various stories is welcome to join. 
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them. 


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